At noon eastern lawmakers are expected to vote on his confirmation. And now to live coverage of the u. S. Senate here on cspan2. The president pro tempore the senate will come to order. The chaplain, dr. Black, will lead the senate in prayer. The chaplain let us pray. Eternal god, the fountain of wisdom, we cherish your presence and honor your name. Give our lawmakers the wisdom to live with honor, as they remember their accountability to history and you. Lord, remind them that you are glorified when they walk on the path of integrity, striving to please you in all they say and do. May their lives bring light to darkness, unity to division, and order to chaos. Grant that they will be living letters read by those who desire to believe that you continue to rule in our world. We pray in your sovereign name. Amen. The president pro tempore please join me in reciting the pledge of allegiance to our flag. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of america, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. The presiding officer the leadership time is reserved. Mr. Grassley madam president. The presiding officer the senator from iowa. Mr. Grassley i ask to address the senate for one minute in morning business. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Grassley covid19, as we all know, has thrown a wrench into americas corridors of commerce and manufacturing in addition to threatening lives and the loss of lives. The unprecedented effort to stop the spread has shut down life as we know it, closing schools, movie theaters, gyms, salons, and restaurants. In a hysterical approach to it, i always say weve had pandemics before but never has the government shut down commerce the way we have. Our rules have disrupted our Food Supply Chain and pulled the rugs out from underneath our economy. And, yet, across my home state, iowas businesses and industries stepped up to the plate. Ethanol plants, local distilleries, others teamed up to produce han sanitizers for Hand Sanitizers for hospitals, Nursing Homes and local law enforcement. Others retooled their factories and redirected their workforce to show to sew masks, produce face shields and to protect equipment for frontline workers. Across iowa businesses shown theres nothing halfway about the iowa way. I yield the floor. Mr. Mcconnell madam president. The presiding officer the majority leader. Mr. Mcconnell our Health Care Sector continues to battle the coronavirus at every level, doctors, nurses, hospital workers, researchers, and Public Health leaders are working constantly to protect americans and fight this invader. Unfortunately, madam president , the last two months stoppage of much of our National Life was never going to permanently extinguish the virus. That task will be ongoing. The stated purpose of this effort was to prevent a rapid spike that could have completely overwhelmed the medical capacities of many areas and the patriotic sacrifices of the American People have worked. We have brought our Health Care System that breathing room we needed. As we cautiously move forward, major precautions will remain in place. Soom routines will not go some routines will not go back to normal for a long time. But as a nation we need to reground and find a middle ground between total lockdown and total normalcy. Let me say that again. We need to find a middle ground between total lockdown and total normalcy. While we battle the virus through isolation, treatment, and hopefully soon a vaccines, we need to reopen the country. If americans want to go back to work and back to school in the fall, we will need to reopen the country. No doubt there will be many discussions here in congress about more ways we could help make that happen. Already were hearing that House Democrats are cobbling together a big laundry list of pet priorities. Even the media is describing it as a partisan wish list with no chance no chance of becoming law. That, madam president , is exactly the wrong approach. It is the wrong approach when a senior democrat calls this pandemic, quote, a tremendous opportunity to restructure things to fit our vision. Its the wrong approach when former Vice President biden calls this tragedy, quote, an Incredible Opportunity to fund and menially transform the country. The American People dont need a farleft transformation. They just need a path back to historically prosperous and optimistic moment that they had built for themselves until about 12 weeks ago. The American People dont need a farleft transformation, they just need a path back to the historically prosperous and optimistic moment they had built for themselves until about 12 weeks ago. American workers dont need washington to inflict some farleft extreme makeover of our country. They need us to get rid of obstacles that might stand in their way. One such obstacle is becoming obvious. The second epidemic of fliflus lawsuits frivolous lawsuits could follow the actual pandemic and crush our recovery before it begins. Already more than twothirds of independent Business Owners say they are specifically worried about a legal liability mindfield minefield getting in the way of reopening. Already plaintiffs lawyers have begun filing hundreds of covidrelated complaints in our courts all across our country. This is exactly the kind of hostile environment that could take our reopening and recovery from challenging the downright impossible. From challenging to down right impossible. So the senates going to act. Senate republicans are preparing a major package of covidrelated liability reforms to fos our our economic recovery. This package which senator coyne and i are spearheading will extend protections for those on the front lines of this response and those who will be on the front lines of our reopening. First and foremost we will protect the Health Care Workers who have been locked in combat with this mysterious new disease. Were not going to let Health Care Heroes emerge from this crisis facing a title wave tidal wave of lawsuits. We arent going to federalize the entirety of medical malpractice law, but we are going to raise the liability threshold for covidrelated malpractice lawsuits. This will give our doctors, nurses, and other Health Care Providers a lot more security as they clock in every day and risk themselves to take care of strangers. Second, we are including new Legal Protections for the businesses, nonprofits, and Government Agencies that have kept serving throughout the crisis. And for those that will need to lead the reopening. We are facing the force layoffs since the first depression in a storm of uncertainty for main street businesses. Americans want to get back to work and we need to do everything in our power to help that happen. Also, madam president , k through 12 schools contribution schools, colleges and universities are uncertain about the fall. If we want schools to reopen this fall, well have to create the conditions to make that possible. We want schools to reopen this fall, we have to create the conditions to make that possible. If we want even an outside shot at the kind of brisk rehiring that American Workers deserve, we have to make sure opportunistic trial lawyers arent outside every Small Business in america waiting to slap them with a lawsuit the instant they turn the lights back on. Our legislation is going to create a legal safe harbor for businesses, nonprofits, governments, and workers and schools who are following Public Health guidelines to the best of their ability. To be clear now, were not talking about immunity from lawsuits. There will be accountability for actual gross negligence and intentional misconduct. That will continue. We arent going to provide immunity but we are going to provide some certainty if we want American Workers to clock back in, we need employers who know if they follow the guidelines, they will not be left to drown in opportunistic litigation. We are going to make sure it is the trial lawyers and not struggling job creators that will need to clear a very high legal burden. In addition, i hope our bill will find ways to expand existing protections for the manufacturers of therapeutics, diagnostics and potential vawks, things vaccines, things we are urging the private sector to produce as fast as possible. And i hope well be able to create new protections for other medical equipment manufacturers as well like the policies we put in the cares act to increase the supply of masks. So, madam president , it is all well and good to give rhetorical tributes here on the floor to health care professionals, essential workers, key industries, Small Businesses, charities, and nonprofits, rhetoric is well and good, words matter, but actions matter more. Americans on the front lines do not just senators to talk about how important they are, they need action. They need us to provide the same kinds of commonsense Legal Protections that congress has enacted a number of times previously in difficult or unusual periods. American taxpayers deserve these protections as well. The men and women of this country just saw congress commit historic amounts of their own money to sweeping recovery legislation so that we could help health care facilities, Small Businesses survive the crisis. Were not going to stand idly by while a small group of wealthy lawyers vacuum up this relief money and redirect it into their own pockets. Strong Legal Protections are the right move for doctors, nurses, hospitals, schools, universities, for workers who want their jobs back, for small Business Owners who are struggling to stay open, for nonprofits that have helped the vulnerable and for taxpayers who want their money to finance a Real National rescue and not the biggest trial lawyer bonanza in american history. Senate republicans are going to continue to develop this legislation. Its going to be a red line for us in any future coronavirus legislation. The administration has already stated its support for action on this issue as well. American heroes across our country deserve these basic protections. This Senate Majority will make sure they get them. Mr. Mcconnell i suggest the absence of a quorum. The presiding officer the clerk will call the roll. Quorum call mr. Schumer madam president. The presiding officer the democratic leader. Mr. Schumer i ask unanimous consent the quorum be dispensed with. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Schumer now, no challenge in our lifetime resembles the depth of our current challenge. We have faced diseases and recessions and natural disasters. But at no time in my lifetime has a Public Health crisis on this scale been paired with such an extensive economic disaster. Finally, finally, were beginning to see signs that the spread of this evil disease has abated in parts of the country. Not over, but at least the curve is going down. My home state, new york, is just beginning to turn the corner. But unfortunately, there are many parts of the country that have not yet reached their peak. The unemployment rolls are as long as they have been since the Great Depression. Working americans are struggling to pay rent, put food on the table, and many have no idea when the next paycheck may arrive. It breaks your heart to see people waiting for hours in their cars to line up at food banks, and when they are interviewed by the press, they are people who never went to a food bank before. Thats how deep and troubling this crisis is being. So we here in congress have an obligation to do the nations business during this time of crisis, to be focusing on this crisis, to help the millions of American Workers and businesses pleading, pleading for assistance. The constitution instructs us to provide for the common welfare, but at this critical juncture in our nations history, the Republican Leadership, led by leader mcconnell, is ducking their responsibility, plain and simple. Leader mcconnell has yet to schedule any legislative business for the floor of the senate this month having to do with covid. It has taken sustained pressure from Senate Democrats to force our republican colleagues to conduct even the routine business of Holding Hearings on the coronavirus. We have had a few hearings now but not many. Wheres the s. B. A. Administrator to talk about the problems in p. P. P. . Wheres secretary scalia to talk about the problems in Unemployment Insurance . Where are the osha executives to talk about how we protect workers from this pandemic, particularly when they are required to go to work . And are not around. And even the hearings we are having are slow. They are sort of eked out like toothpaste from a tube. The word is were hearing from mnuchin and powell on the 19th. Thats close to two months after we passed covid 3. Thats not oversight. Thats not congress job at any time, made even worse because were in a crisis. And then last night, amazingly, the republican leader explained that republicans have, quote, not yet felt the urgency of acting immediately. Let me repeat that. With millions of americans sick and tens of thousands dying, with depression levels of unemployment, the republican leader mcconnell said that republicans have, quote, not yet felt the urgency of acting immediately, unquote. We live in a divided nation, but one thing that pretty much everyone agrees on is there is a great deal of urgency right now. Leader mcconnell, there is nothing more urgent to a family that is struggling to feed their children and keep a roof over their heads. Leader mcconnell, there is nothing more urgent to a Small Business owner who is inches away from closing the doors of his lifes work. Republican leadership needs to wake up, wake up to the dire economic reality tens of millions of americans are facing. We must pass big, bold legislation to confront the crisis before us. Thats just what the house of representatives is working on right now. We dont believe that our two parties will agree on everything we must do, but at the very least, at the very least, we should agree there is an urgency to provide a relief to our citizens who are suffering and struggling. President hoover lacked the urgency to get the federal government involved at the outset of the Great Depression. Every history book teaches us that his era prolonged and likely deepened the suffering of American Workers. When Republican Leaders look at unemployment numbers and say we dont need to act immediately, that governments done enough already, they are the latter day herbert hoovers, and i fear it could lead to similar results. A deeper and longer recession, and god forbid but not out of the question, a second Great Depression because of the inaction and incompetence of the president being followed obediently, wrongly by the republican senators. The lack of urgency in the Republican Party extends down pennsylvania avenue to the oval office. From almost the very beginning of this crisis, President Trump has downplayed its severity and tried to wish it out of existence. The president said coronavirus might disappear mir miraculousl, his word. He said it was a hoax. He said the warm weather might take care of it. He pitched quack medicines and speculated that a vaccine could be ready in two months. Two months ago, the president said that anybody who wants a test can get a test, which is not even close to being true. The president s words are reckless. Constant belittling of the crisis, ignoring the crisis, varying burying the truth and burying his head in the sand. It has prolonged and made the crisis worse and the American People know it. Thats why he lashes out, the president does, at reporters who ask him fair questions. Thats why. He knows hes to blame for a good part of the depth and prolongation of this crisis. He knows that. And yet he cant bring himself to face the truth. He cant bring himself to tell the American People the truth. Pitching quack medicine, telling people its going to go away, saying yesterday that we have met the moment and we have prevailed. What planet is he on . More than 30 million unemployed and we have prevailed. Is. 3 million infected, 80,000 american fatalities. Those numbers still growing, and we have prevailed. The president s comments show a stunning disregard for the truth, and it hurts every american. I dont care what your politics is. No one should tolerate a president who ignores the truth, says whatever pops into his head, whether its true or false or dangerous, and then moves on his merry way to do the next speak the next untruth, talk about the next quack cure. The president s comments show a stunning disregard for the truth. It may have been in the rose garden and not on the deck of a battleship, but President Trump saying we have prevailed is akin to declaring Mission Accomplished long before the battles are over and the war is won. Now later on the president , as usual, tries to correct what he said or his advisors d he said he only meant testing. We have prevailed on testing. But thats false, too. Even the corrections a